Justice News

Woman Faces Five Years In Federal Prison For Filing False Claims In Tax Case

DALLAS — Mary Ngacha appeared this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Horan and pleaded guilty to one count of filing false claims against an agency of the United States. She faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution. Ngacha will remain on bond, pending sentencing, which is scheduled for December 4, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Ngacha’s co-defendant in the case, Harriet Mathita, pleaded guilty in November 2012 to a related tax offense and is currently serving a 30-month federal prison sentence. She was also ordered to pay $45,906 in restitution.

According to the factual resume filed in her case, Mathita admitted that from December 2009 through June 2010, an individual in Dallas, later identified as Ngacha, mailed multiple federal tax returns to the IRS that used stolen identification information and made false and fictitious claims for payment of tax refunds. Each return contained a false Form W-2 that reported significant, although fictitious, wages and withholding so as to result in a claim for a large tax refund. The returns directed the IRS to pay the refund either into a bank account or a physical address controlled by a conspirator.

The factual resume further stated that three of these fraudulent tax returns directed the refund check to be delivered to the Mathita’s address in Plano, Texas. In May 2010, a U.S. Treasury check in the amount of $45,206 was, in fact, delivered to her Plano address. Only one of the three fraudulent returns actually resulted in a refund check being mailed; the other refunds were not released by the IRS.

Ngacha, according to the order setting the conditions of her release, is a Dallas resident.

According to the stipulated facts outlined in her factual resume, from at least November 2009 through April 2010, Ngacha willfully assisted in the preparation of, and then filed, 10 federal income tax returns that contained false information. These returns had been mailed to Ngacha from an accomplice located outside the United States. After receiving them, Ngacha printed them, signed the purported taxpayer’s name and then mailed them to the IRS for processing. These returns used the last names and social security numbers of taxpayers without their knowledge or authorization and each return included a false form W-2 with fictitious wages and withholding amounts. A form schedule C was also attached showing a substantial business loss from a sole proprietorship.

Specifically, on November 2, 2009, according to the factual resume, Ngacha signed and then mailed to the IRS a tax return in the name of “Motachwa Poliquin” that used the social security number belonging to an individual that had been used without that individual’s knowledge or consent. The return also included a fictitious form W-2 that falsely reported “Motachwa Poliquin” had earned $495,855 from Fann Contracting for 2008 and that $152,054 had been withheld by the IRS. The return claimed a $147,464 refund and directed the IRS to electronically deposit that refund into an account at JPMorgan Chase Bank that Ngacha had opened. On November 27, 2011, the IRS electronically deposited the “Poliquin” refund of $148,264 into that account, and on the same day, Ngacha transferred the entire amount from that account to her personal bank account at JPMorgan Chase. Ngacha then wired $100,000 of that amount to a bank in Nairobi, Kenya, and spent the rest of the refund for her own personal use and benefit.

The investigation was conducted by IRS-CI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stokes is in charge of the prosecution.